The Legacy - Book Review

The Legacy

Gemma Malley

YA Dystopian

(Book #3 of the Declaration series)

When a Pincent Pharma lorry is ambushed by the Underground, its contents come as a huge surprise—not drugs, but corpses in a horrible state.
It appears Longevity isn’t working and the drugs that are supposed to guarantee eternal youth are failing to live up to their promise.
A virus is sweeping the country, killing many in its wake, and Longevity is powerless to fight it. When Richard Pincent of Pincent Pharma suggests that the Underground has released the virus, something has to be done to alert everyone to the truth and put the story straight once and for all.

Review:

‘The Legacy’ is the third and final book in Gemma Malley’s declaration series and I must admit, although it tied up all the loose ends and finished on a good and surprising note,  I thought the story itself was pretty average. While the book was interesting, I just couldn’t get into it and the characters felt a little hollow to me. However having said that this book is aimed at younger teens and I think that’s why the romantic and emotional aspects of the book were lacking in depth.

Yet I still love the premise of the book. Set in a world where science has created a drug that prevents death, age and disease – the world is over populated and the birth of children outlawed. Any illegal ‘surplus’ kids are rounded up to either be executed or trained as servants, never to offered the longevity drug. But when people begin to die of a mysterious illness, the creator of the drug Richard Princent, blames the resistance, hindering their efforts by turning the world against them. But the resistance is the worlds’ only hope. With natural resources running out the resistence must find away to stop Princent drugs before the people, and the world, destroy themselves…

I agree that it was great to see the characters from previous books again, however the scenes and POVs changed constantly so it was hard to reconnect with the characters, let alone feel empathy towards them.  Yet I liked the author’s choice to make Anna and Peter (the previous books main hero/heroine) parents, but I thought they sounded much older than what were. Still it was nice to see how their story had continued.

I also really liked how Gemma Malley created a plot so ripe with both political and moral issues. It certainly gave me something to think about and I must say that while I thought the story average, the ending itself was pretty climatic. With several surprising twists and turns, it also gave me plenty of food for thought.

So overall an average read but a good ending to great trilogy. I would recommend it to younger teens but also to fans of dystopian novels. Great for those who like to ponder on the ‘what if…’ kind of questions. 3 1/2 stars!